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My superficial examination of the opening post quote is that the major part of it was written by E. B. Price, with, perhaps, a small part from R.W. O'fill; and that the entire quoted part was taken from a book that had been edited by Samuel Koranting-Pipim. All of this is important information. The post, as posted by "hobie" was potentially confusing. NOTE to "hobie:" If you wish to continue posting here, exercise a greater responsibility to inform as to your sources and to properly present them.

We tend to MISREAD the first angel's message. the first angel's message is the everlasting gospel spreading through the earth so that we can rejoice in rather than fear the hour of his judgment. For those who respond to the first angel's message they have accepted that God is indeed God, the creator. In Church history Atonement has come to mean what does it take to get into heaven. The Catholics had many things people had to do to make their atonement. The Protestants sees that the only thing it takes to get into heaven is the atonement in Jesus. (It has sadly become limited to what Jesus did on the cross only, while his whole life, passion/death and resurrection and post resurrection is a fuller view of atonement.) The Biblical meaning of Atonement is a little bit different from the Church History meaning. While the church history meaning is "what does it take for me to get into heaven." Atonement/Judgment in the Bible is ANYTHING that God does, especially something out of the ordinary, that gives us a blessing and brings us closer to God if we accept or which means we at least miss a blessing, although could end up missing out on a saving relationship with God if we reject. In the Bible sense atonement started the moment the first created being opened it's eyes to see their creator and start a relationship with the creator. A brief note on 1844. The ancient world believed in cyclic thought. That different times and events would circle around in certain times in history and that different places were equivalent to each other. (three very useful books of which I wish two were in every Adventist home, are "Before History" by Henri Frankfort and others 1946 University of Chicago press. "Hebrew Thought Compared to Greek" by Bowman are the major two. A third pretty good book but not as important as the first two is "The myth of the eternal return" by Mircea Eliade). There were different times that could have fulfilled Daniel 8:14. ONE of these is Yom Kippur 1844 (I am not hung up on which date for Yom Kippur was the correct one.) What we find in 1844 is that the book of Robinson's 1830s trip to the land of the Bible was finally published and starting to be read. This is what opened up the ancient world, especially the world of the Bible so that we can start to investigate the pages of scripture as never before. In the cycles what happens in heaven has a reflection on earth. For ourselves on earth it is the dawning of the age of exegesis. For heaven it is a review of those claiming to have accepted Jesus to first of all see if they really did nor not and if they did what difference did Jesus make in their lives. This helps the angels and others understand their own salvation through Jesus clearer.

Hobie, as I react to your recent posts: Thank you for your openness in your recent posts. That does you very well. My overall feeling is sadness for what you have experienced. I commend you for your attempt to remain true to what you believe to be the call of God for your life and your struggle to remain within the SDA community. I would hope that the SDA Church could continue to be a place where people like you could remain, feel welcomed and be spiritually nurtured. May the Lord continue to be with you and to guide you in your spiritual life. At this point, I will simply say that people with whom you disagree are as committed as are you to doing the will of God and the mission of Christ in this last day. That may be true regardless of how you understand that and notwithstanding that I do not believe that you are always correct in how you describe them. I will suggest two important issues for the times in which we live today: 1) The SDA Church today is not reaching many people groups to the extent that God would want us to reach them. People who recognize that are attempting to discover the methods that are effective in reaching them and are consistent with God's plan for reaching them (regardless of what you might think). God will give success to those that are godly. Others will fail. Let us give God time to demonstrate which ones are of God and which are not. 2) We live today in a time much different from that of the time of Ellen White. In her time, it could be assumed that people had a basic knowledge of Christian faith and doctrine. Many did not need to be converted to Christ, rather then only needed to be informed as to certain doctrinal issues. This is no longer the case today. One can no longer assume that people have a basic knowledge. There is a place for some to teach basics and for others to expand on that foundation and teach to more detailed and less basic issues. One should not criticize those who attempt to build a foundation that needs more work by others. Expansion: I will give you and example of what I am talking about. Let us look at what had been called The One Project (TOP). For a number of years it held meetings that ranged from one to three days. Those meeting focused on making Christ the center of our lives. Those meetings did not focus on what some critics considered to be the basis of Adventism and the 3-angels of Revelation 14. There was not time to do so in a short meeting of one to three days. Japhet, a founder of TOP certainly preached on distinctive SDA doctrines, with Christ as the center in his preaching in the Boulder SDA congregation. That is where it should have been done. Hobie: I encourage you to work, as you believe God has called you, to build the SDA Church and to strengthen and nurture the people with whom you work to build a relationship with Christ. I encourage you not to spend your time in criticizing others, to include those whom you do not fully understand. God will lead and sometimes I believe that we spend too much time in attempting to correct others. Let God be God and do what God will do. NOTE: People may be allowed to post under a penname. In a few cases such may be justified. Most of the time it is not. I wish you could post under you true name. Ultimately that is a decision that you will make.

HCH has an agenda and promotes it in any manner possible.

Two aspects of the above post catch my attention: 1) The writer does not clearly indicate whether he is quoting what another person has written, or whether he is quoting himself. IOW, is he, or is he not a SDA pastor who traveled from Australia to the U.S. to study celebration churches? 2) I am not impressed by a person who while taking a position with which he knows many will disagree, writes under a pen name so that no one will know who he really is. God expects people to stand for the right, not hide under the bed in a darkened room, with the door shut and the electricity turned off so that the light cannot be turned on.